A portable device powered by a simple breath can measure lung function and transmit results to your phone. The 3-D printed device is designed to enable people with lung conditions, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to gauge their lung function without having to visit a clinic.
The technology, developed by a student at the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), is one of...

At 2015 International CES, NSF-funded small business Sun Innovations demonstrated a special coating that transforms transparent surfaces – such as glass – into futuristic digital displays.
The prototype, based on a set of nanophosphors with highly fluorescent quantum efficiency, could potentially enable vehicle windshields or building windows to display electronic information while remaining otherwise transparent.
Learn more at http://www.sun-innovations.com .

While most efforts to understand the brain focus on new technologies to magnify small anatomical features, engineers at the MIT-based Center for Brains, Minds and Machines have found a way to make brains physically bigger.
The technique, which the researchers call expansion microscopy, uses an expandable polymer and water to swell brain tissue to about four and a half times its usual size, so that nanoscale structures once blurry appear sharp with an ordinary confocal microscope.
Expansion...

A significant amount of real estate inside your cell phone is taken up by a chip called a power management integrated circuit (PMIC). The chip delivers power from the battery to different areas within the phone, an efficient but bulky system.
Now, NSF-funded small business Lion Semiconductor has designed a chip that is two to three times smaller than existing ones. A smaller chip means more room for a bigger battery – and longer battery life – or a thinner, smaller device.
Wonyoung...

Can you wiggle your ears? If so, you're a prime candidate to try out a new headset from Reach Bionics. The small business has created technology that harnesses EMG signals from ear muscles. The creators demonstrated the device at the 2015 International CES Eureka Park.
Even if you're not an obvious ear-wiggler, the hands-free controller can respond to muscle signals to control a computer cursor, motorized wheelchair or video game. Learn more: http://www.reachbionics.com/

In a landmark study that researched the origins of bird species, evolutionary biologists have made discoveries about the age of birds, and the genomic relationships among modern birds.
The genomes of modern birds tell a story: today's winged rulers of the skies emerged and evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs and almost everything else 66 million years ago.
That story is now coming to light, thanks to an international collaboration that has been underway for four...

The Congo basin is an unruly ribbon of tropical forest, over a million square miles spanning six countries in Central Africa. It is the second-largest contiguous tropical forest in the world. The basin is home to the classics of African wildlife – chimpanzees, elephants, gorillas – along with thousands of other less well-known species.
This wealth of flora and fauna, much of it native to the region, is enough to qualify the Congo basin as a biodiversity hotspot: a biologically rich...

Organs on a chip systems could transform the medical drug pipeline as we know it. Biomedical engineer Ali Khademhosseini explains how he and his team at MIT are engineering tissues outside of the human body and connecting different "organs" to solve some pressing challenges.